72 CESSION OF ALASKA 



include in the territory conveyed tlie wliole of 

 the Aleutian Islands east of that meridian." 

 Cession ii u i u - Article VI contains the following stipnlation : 



cumbered. , . 



''The cession of the territory and dommion 

 herein made is hereby declared to be free and 

 miincumbered by any reservations, privileges, 

 franchises, grants, br possessions by any asso- 

 ciated companies, whether corporate or incorpo- 

 rate, Enssian, or any other, or by any parties, 

 except merely private individual property hold- 

 ers ; and the cession hereby made conveys all 

 the rights, franchises, and privileges now belong- 

 ing to Eussia in the said territory or dominion, 

 and appurtenances thereto." 

 Russia's risiits The couclusion is irresistible from a mere 



ovei'sealfiicsi)ass- 



edtoUuited States reading of this instrument that all the rights of 

 Russia as to jurisdiction and as to the sealeries 

 in Bering Sea east of the water boundary fixed 

 by the treaty of March 30, 1867, passed unim- 

 paired to the United States under that treaty. 

 In fact, the British Government has announced 

 its readiness to accept this conclusion without 

 dispute.^ 

 Review of juris- The jurisdiction which Russia exercised over 



diction exercised ^^ . ri r • -i 



i».v Russia and her Bemig bca lor a ccutury prior and up to the date 



motives therefor. 



of the transfer of a portion of its coasts and waters 

 to the United States has been so fully set forth that 



'Lord Salisbury to Mr. Blaine, Feb. 21, 1891, Vol. I, p. 294. 



